Chapter Two
Cordell pushed open the door to the sheriff’s office on a gust of wind. He saw his brother look up from the small glassed-in office set back from the dispatcher’s and deputy’s desks. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw the two them freeze.
Seems they had already heard he was in town but hadn’t expected him to walk into the mouth of the lion, so to speak.
His brother rose slowly from behind his desk and opened his office door to step out.
He had the same sandy-blond hair as Cordell except his had been recently cut.
Still, it was longer on top than Cordell remembered, making Max look more boyish.
The one thing that never changed were the faded-denim blue eyes.
They were the same as his, maybe a little more piercing, but definitely not friendly.
“Deputy, arrest this man,” Max Lander said.
The deputy looked confused. “Sheriff?”
“He’s got several old warrants out for him in this county. Cuff him, read him his rights and lock him up.”
The deputy rose slowly from his chair, picked up his cuffs and moved cautiously toward Cordell the way he would a rattlesnake coiled in the middle of the path.
“Max, we need to talk,” Cordell said, holding up both hands in surrender. “I’m serious. You need to listen to me. I have some news you aren’t going to like.”
Max picked up his Stetson from the hook by his office door. “It’s my lunchtime. I’m going down to Goldie’s for the daily special. Rance, I expect you to have this man behind bars by the time I return.”
“Max,” Cordell said as Bobby grabbed his arm and pulled it behind him, then snatched the other one. He felt the familiar bite of the cuffs as Max walked right to him.
“What did you think was going to happen?” Max whispered as he continued to the door and stepped out into the blustery fall day.
* * *
It was nearly impossible to keep a secret in a small town in Montana.
Josie had gone back to snapping the last of the green beans from the garden when she heard the landline ring inside the house.
Her sister answered it on the second ring even though Amy Sue was busy putting up the last of the beets.
From the porch, Josie listened to her sister’s side of the conversation through the screen door.
She’d been expecting a call and now tensed as she waited with some trepidation to hear what this one was about.
Hard to tell with her sister’s one-word responses to whatever was being said on the other end of the line.
“Well, I’ll be,” Amy Sue finished. “Sorry to hear that. Thanks for letting us know.” She hung up and walked to the screen door again. Josie didn’t move, hardly breathed as she waited for the bad news.
“Appears Cordell Lander is back in town,” her sister said quietly. “Clancy just called. Says he’s driving a pickup and pulling a rented small, enclosed trailer. Sounds like he’s back to stay for a while.”
Josie closed her eyes for a moment. She could tell her sister was waiting for a reaction.
While Josie had done her best to hide how devastated she’d been when Cordell had left Dry Gulch six years ago, she figured everyone in town knew.
She and Cordell had been best friends, then sweethearts, then lovers.
She’d given him her heart, knowing that if he broke it, she’d never love again.
And sure as the devil, that’s what he did.
Rising, careful not to spill the beans, she turned to her sister. “You need some help with the beets?”
“That’s all you have to say?”
“What would you like me to say?” Josie asked. The wind whipped her hair into her eyes as her sister stepped back to let her enter the house.
“Aren’t you the least bit curious as to what he’s doing back here?” Amy Sue demanded.
“Nope. Whatever it is, he won’t be here long,” she said as she carried the bowl into the kitchen and began digging out a large pot from under the counter to put a scald on the beans before freezing them.
She could feel her sister watching her, looking for any remnant of feelings Josie might have for the bad boy who everyone in town, including her sister, thought would ruin her life.
That seemed like a lifetime ago, but really hadn’t been all that far in the past. The pain certainly hadn’t decreased any. Nor had those old feelings. Not that she would let her sister see either if she could help it.
But as she turned on the faucet to cover the beans with water, she couldn’t help the thump of her pulse in her ears at just the thought of seeing Cordell again. What was he doing back here? Had he changed much since the last time she’d seen him? Did he plan on seeing her before he left again?
Her hands shook as she put the pot on the burner.
“You don’t have to pretend with me,” Amy Sue said, standing watching her. “You know you want to see him.” The landline rang again.
The two of them looked at each other. Josie shook her head to indicate she wasn’t picking it up. Her sister folded her arms and let it ring another three times before she couldn’t take it any longer and answered the call.
“If you’re calling to tell me that Cordell Lander is back in town, you’re too late,” Amy Sue said into the phone. She listened for a moment, her gaze going to Josie, then she said, “Thank you for letting us know,” and hung up.
Feeling her sister’s gaze boring into her, Josie sighed. “What?”
“That was Tammy down at the sheriff’s department.” Tammy Brooks was a former classmate and the daytime dispatcher. “If you wanted to see Cordell, he won’t be hard to find. He’s in jail. Max arrested him.”
* * *
Max Lander swore the moment he was outside the sheriff’s department.
The last person he’d expected to see walk through that door was his brother.
He shook his head as he started down the street toward Goldie’s Café.
No longer hungry, he still couldn’t stay in the office.
He wasn’t up to dealing with Cordell yet.
Whatever ill wind had blown his brother back into town, it spelled trouble.
It always had, always would, he told himself.
If Cordell thought he would get preferential treatment in his hometown, he was sadly mistaken.
Max had done everything he could to keep his brother from jail before Cordell had left town.
He couldn’t protect him anymore, he told himself as he pushed open the door to the only café still open in town.
When his brother had left six years ago, he hadn’t wanted him to leave.
They’d been safe here in Dry Gulch now for years.
Max knew it didn’t make a lot of sense, this fear of his, but he’d worried about Cordell getting into serious trouble away from here.
This was their safe haven. He feared his brother didn’t understand that.
His mood, however, picked right up when he spotted Goldie Shaw behind the counter. Her long blond hair was pulled up into a ponytail, her bangs just above her big brown eyes. The warmth of her smile had always been his undoing. His heart did a cartwheel in his chest at just the sight of her.
He headed for her, needing a kind word. Bad-boy Cordell Lander’s return would soon be all anyone was talking about. Max hoped to put that off as long as possible.
“Hey, Goldie,” he said, already feeling better as he slipped onto a stool that had seen better days.
“The special?” she said, returning his smile with a wink.
“You know it.”
She chuckled and headed into the kitchen to tell the cook. Goldie knew just how he liked his meat cooked and what sides he’d want with it. She tried to make everything special for him. She’d put up with him for almost six years. She was too good for him.
“When are you going to marry that girl?” Tanner Frost demanded from down the counter. The older bearded man was hunched over his soup, spoon suspended as if he’d read Max’s thought and felt the need to ask the question the entire town had been asking for years now.
“Just eat your soup, Frost,” Max said with a groan as he looked through the open serving space to the kitchen to see if Goldie had heard.
She was busy talking to the cook, a teenage boy named Ronnie Dean.
Max was sure she was distracted. He didn’t want her to be offended by his harsh remark.
But he knew Frost wasn’t the only one wondering about his intentions with everyone’s favorite café owner.
Goldie returned, smiling as soon as her gaze fell on him.
Damn, he loved this woman, couldn’t imagine living without her.
How could he explain to her what was taking him so long to make her his wife?
He could barely explain it to himself. But his wild brother showing up certainly brought the reason home, didn’t it?
“Is it true?” Goldie whispered. For just an instant, he thought he’d been wrong and that she’d heard what that fool Frost had said. “Is Cordell really back?”
* * *
Cordell lay on the bench in the smallest of the cells, the drunk tank.
It wasn’t like he hadn’t been here before.
But he couldn’t help feeling impatient. He’d driven almost straight through from Florida to get home to warn his brother.
All the driving, all the worrying, all the second-guessing himself had worn him out.
He drifted right off, startling awake to find the sheriff banging on the bars.
Pushing himself up to a sitting position, he leaned his elbows on his knees, before shifting his gaze to his brother. “Enjoy your lunch?”
“What are you doing here?” he said, sounding exasperated.
Cordell rose, stretched, yawned and walked slowly over to the bars and his brother.
He had come to warn Max, but it was a hell of a lot more than that.
He knew his brother was going to need his help and that Max would fight him on that.
That’s if his brother even believed what he was about to tell him.